Art and crafts wedding in Thomas Mann's mansion

I had a lot of fun designing Amy and Neal's wedding on September 5 in Pacific Palisades. Not only the couple, who had traveled to over 50 countries ( not all together) was inspiring but also the venue, German writer Thomas Mann's house in Pacific Palisades co-created the literati theme.
Buddenbrooks anybody?

It took a while to tie 135 travel tags escort cards on Amy's mom's vintage suitcases, in which we found old dolls from the fifties. Her mom used the suitcase last when she was a little girl... It was worth the effort though as guests enjoyed finding their names on the "antiques" referencing the adventurous couples past and upcoming travels.

Bridesmaid helped tie eclectic gold strings and ribbons around the jute napkin rings, so all looked slightly different.  The details were a lot of fun and many actually from the house, from friends and relatives and often with stories attached.

 

I was amazed by Amy's grand ma's hand blown champagne flutes, wings being a sweet obsession of mine.  

 The details were a lot of fun and many actually from the house, from friends and relatives and often with stories attached.

 

Neal brought one of his cigar boxes for the gift cards, Nikki added a candelabra from her grand parents and the house offered hand painted boxes, bronze candle sticks and bowls.

It was amazing working in the famous writer's original office, shellf packed with his first editions... being a published writer myself it had a bit of a sacred feel to it.
 

We displayed one of Mann's quotes in the antique type writer, of course one of his happier ones, matching the gorgeous event and the sweet occasion.

Eco friendly florist

 

Blake (as in Blake and Stephen, May 30, 2010 in Bel Air) and I visited Dandelion Ranch on Thursday and were smitten by the natural and whimsical beauty of the place. One would think that tires in front of a studio aren't that inviting but Clover Chadvick and her team transform found objects into beautifully unique usables, completely after our hearts.  

 

O joy, we smiled, when we entered into a vintage heaven of metal, wooden and clay containers, bunches of unusual plants, grasses, flowering (or not) twigs, herbs, yeah even weeds can get their place in a caring, creative florists bouquet.

We chose the metal pots and wooden boxes above. The arrangements will be county fair wild,  beautiful, mostly organic and also edible, an ode to Stephen who really doesn't like waste.

My green wedding planner promise: Blake and Stephen's 500 guest movie crowd wedding will have less impact on the environment than 80% of smaller weddings in 2010... just love the challenge.

Check in for updates.

The arty bridesmaid in recycled fashion

For bohemians, art lovers, green and wild girls:
Deluz reconstructs and reinvents dresses using existing fabrics and reusable garments to create One-of-a-kind, Wearable Art.

For the queen of arts only: A radical eco fashion creation by Rachel Wright. The dress is made entirely out of recycled materials: the skirt is half-inch polyethylene foam and the jacket is very thin packing foam. Underneath is a 1930’s satin nightgown.
Where can you find the wildest creations? At Etsy of course. A bit of a hit and miss but always worth to have a peek.

Malibu wedding tent adventures

There was nothing but a plain huge horse arena with amazing ocean view. Then we came with eco friendly trucks and built a tent for 250 guests.








We worked on this for 9 hours and then we got the lanterns competing with the sunset.

What was

California Ranch Wedding, so eco-beautiful

Olivia and Andrew got married on Sunday, October 11, 2009. Their theme: "classy country with a touch of Shakespeare" resonated perfectly with the Upper Las Virgines Ranch in the hills of Calabasas, CA; the theme actually was born while strolling through the cozy property. The ranch was saved from big development in 2003. Over 1000 mature California oak trees were saved along with habitat for threatened California red-legged frogs, endangered Least Bell's vireos, endangered Southwestern willow flycatchers, and San Fernando Valley spineflower (once thought to be extinct). Money spent on the venue goes back to protecting nature, how much greener can you get?



We kept it eclectic with integrating the couple's lineages, the bag piper for Olivia, Persian music for Andrew, and their life style: wild flowers in vintage vases, Olivia and I patrolled dozens of thrift stores for six months, serving an all vegetarian menu with mostly organic and local ingredients presented family style and Argentinian Dulce de Leche cookies as they will live in Buenos Aires for half a year.


We tried our vintage vases on many designs and fell in love with the "garden toile" linen. Buying it in Downtown LA and without having it hemmed saves some cash but the best is: it's reusable for a long time. It turned out to be even more beautiful than we imagined under ancient oak trees and with our overhead retro lighting and bare light bulbs on Shepard hooks. (Olivia saved as I am the bargain hunter and got some bride share reduction for this one)
Guests lived the Provencale life accentuated by the delicious Croque en Bouche, called "Piece Monte" in France.





DJ Tony from "Good Times" brought his Congas and rocked the party until midnight.



Photographer Jared Iorio was complimented by everybody as being everywhere but felt like a friend not a stranger doing his job. Tip: use an up and coming photographer who gives you a deal as he wants to fill his portfolio. ( Jared's photos )
I am so happy to have chosen the perfect crew as not only Jared but Tony from Good Times and the Barrista from Intelligencia got to swing with this amazing community of life loving people. When the drums touched people's souls, Mary, Olivia's mom pulled me onto the dance floor .... Thanks to the embracing spirit of the Ranch's director Joan Pankratz and Maritza, her guard in uniform, even the supervision felt like part of the party.